This invention concerns improved lubrication apparatus in general, and in particular apparatus for lubricating a device even during its operation, or for automatically and/or remotely lubricating a device.
Numerous conventional operative devices include drive members or other members mounted for rotation on a rotatable shaft. Such rotatable shaft may often be provided with a central, co-axial bore therein for receipt of grease. A conventional grease fitting or its equivalent may be secured at an exposed end of such rotatable shaft bore. Periodically, maintenance personnel may lubricate the bore of the rotatable shaft by introducing grease thereto through the grease fitting. However, such operation is labor intensive, and possesses other drawbacks.
For example, a given rotatable shaft to be lubricated may involve a drive application, such as the shafts which support variable discs for constant speed and variable speed assemblies on a mechanical adjustable speed drive. Examples of such drive are provided by U.S. Pat. No. 4,425,102 (Huff et al.); U.S. Pat. No. 4,411,590 (Meredith); and U.S. Pat. No. 4,384,863 (Huff et al.); all of which are commonly assigned with the present invention. For general disclosure purposes with respect to such mechanical adjustable speed drives, the disclosures of such patents are herein incorporated by reference.
Due to the size or configuration of a particular drive application at a given production facility, the grease fittings for such drive devices may be readily inaccessible by maintenance personnel, or even located in a relatively dangerous position. For example, where a particular drive is located at the top of a press assembly or underneath a conveyor, dis-incentives will be presented to any maintenance personnel charged with regularly lubricating such drive.
Moreover, in many commercial drive applications, the drive may need to be operative for hours, days, or even weeks at a time without interruption in support of its associated commercial process. Such drive demand can commonly dictate a need for a regular lubrication schedule. If the commercial activity is inherently dangerous, it may be necessary to halt production merely to permit maintenance personnel to perform routine or regular lubrication maintenance of the drives. Similarly, production must be stopped just for lubrication maintenance if it is impractical to apply grease to the grease fitting during continued operation of the device.
In addition to the foregoing circumstances, some drive applications (including some involving fairly continuous operation) may of necessity be situated in relatively isolated areas where maintenance personnel are not always present. For example, oil rigs (particularly those on off-shore platforms) may require routine visits by maintenance personnel, with one of their primary purposes being lubrication and other maintenance of drives operating otherwise continuously. In such circumstances, even simple lubrication of a conventional drive can be an expensive, and even dangerous, proposition.